Jessica McClure Archer was called to lead Pittsburgh Presbytery after seven successful years of ministry at Simpson Mills Presbyterian Church.
Jessica McClure Archer had been away from her Washington, PA, roots for 13 years, living in northern Virginia and serving a congregation near Washington D.C. as its youth director and associate pastor after graduating from Princeton Theological Seminary. But something was pulling her back to southwestern Pennsylvania. So, without something concrete waiting in the wings, she and her family decided to pack up and move back to where she grew up.
“I quit my job,” she said. “I left my call without having a full call here (in Pittsburgh Presbytery). I just felt that God was working. We were close on one or two places, and I felt it was all going to work out, and it did. I knew that my season had ended, and it was time for me to explore a new call. It’s a place where I felt God was calling me to. I always had a sense that God was up to something with me coming back home, and I didn’t know exactly what that was ultimately going to look like.”
It resulted in a seven-year call as the pastor at Sampson Mills Presbyterian Church in Pittsburgh Presbytery. But that appears to just be a steppingstone position to her new call as the general minister of the presbytery, a role she began on Oct. 1.
“It was not what I was seeking,” she said. “When Sheldon (Sorge) retired, I had deep respect and admiration for him, his work, his faithfulness and his care for pastors and congregations. He’s a brilliant theological mind, and I was just always very thankful for his leadership.
“When he retired, it was not on my radar. I wasn’t looking. I had a great call, a great church and we were doing really exciting things in the Mon Valley in the Pittsburgh area. I was just really settled. In a few years maybe I’ll be open to a new call when my kids have graduated high school was sort of always in my game plan. I had some folks who reached out and said you have some really unique gifts and skills, maybe you’ll want to think about looking at applying for this position. I really thought people were crazy.”
Jessica took their advice, applied and eventually was voted to be the leader of the region. It’s an area that she is certainly familiar with.
“I wanted to be a part of tending to the city here in southwestern Pennsylvania for what I hope is a next chapter in our life together,” she said. “I am indebted to where I am because of the church here that grew me up. It nurtured me and cared for me, and I wanted to be able to use my gifts, my skills and my passion for ministry for the mission of the church here in southwestern Pennsylvania.”
It’s a call she accepted after making great inroads in the Sampson Mills community.
“We really leaned into this sense of being an anchor institution in our community,” she said. “We spent a lot of time out in our neighborhoods. We wanted to be a place of recovery, a place of healing, a place of connection. We spent a lot of time partnering with our schools, our city officials and other non-profits. We really became an anchor of blessing in our community. I’m so, so proud of that and the way that folks bought into that mission. There’s also a lot of opportunity here to do something similar in a different context. I’m looking forward to bringing those same kind of skill sets here.”
Jessica’s familiarity with the region allows her to hit the ground running as the presbytery’s general minister.
Jessica McClure Archer speaks along side a gathering of pilgrims from the Presbyterian Evangelical Church of South Sudan earlier this fall.
“There are some really good benefits of knowing the reality on the grounds of what communities are facing and what the particular context the churches are in,” she said. “It’s quite diverse, from places that are more rural to urban to old steel mill towns to the places that have gentrification and new industry that has come. I have a deep sense of that reality and the challenges that churches face depending on their context. I think that really helps.
“The Pittsburgh area is so unique compared to other places with its history, loss, seeds of hope for new things and deep rootedness of the people who don’t stray too far from home. That helps me be able to understand the realities on the ground. And I’ve been a pastor, a colleague among folks here in the presbytery for the last seven years, so it really helps that I know the players in the room. I know people’s names and I know where they are.
“I know people, I have some relationships, but I’m also not one who just spent my entire ministry here, so I bring that kind of fresh perspective as well. I believe I bring both of those angles.”
With lots of potential in Pittsburgh Presbytery, Jessica is anxious to get to work on some of the visions she has for the region.
“I’m excited about why we exist as a presbytery, which is to support congregations and their particular witnesses to the gospel,” she said. “That’s really what excites me because we know that to be the church today is going to require a different set of skill sets and different sets of a way of being church. Churches have a good sense of willingness: ‘We’re going to try but we need some help figuring that out.’ How does the presbytery come alongside to tool, equip and support churches as they find new ways of being in ministry?”
Continuing the presbytery’s work with justice ministries and its Matthew 25 commitment are important parts of what Jessica plans to build on going forward. These outreaches have created energy in the presbytery that she plans to keep growing.
“People are really energized,” she said. “That is fantastic to witness and find ways to channel that. Even though we are a tight presbytery – it’s one county; nowhere else is like this – yet we have been living in isolation for a long time. So, how do we partner and really lean into this sense of being a covenant community in which we have been called? There’s some energy around that and it’s very palpable.”
While Jessica has a clear-cut plan of things she wants to accomplish during the early part of her time as general minister in Pittsburgh, among her top priorities is visiting the congregations and furthering relationships with church leaders.
“For the next three months, I want to get to know folks,” she said. “I want to be in people’s churches, to help cultivate a sense of trust – we have a large trust deficit that came out of our landscape study – and that’s just being present and loving people where they are, observing how folks are doing their ministry currently, getting into the pew and sometimes the pulpit and just building those relationships.
“My high-level goal right now is to relate, relate, relate. I want to build significant, trusting relationships and lean into a sense of empathy and care where congregations are now so that we can really be mindful about how we might lead them into the future that God is calling.”
While Jessica knows the area, the churches and many of the blessings and struggles that impact the region, learning mid council work is something she is not familiar with and something she’ll need to get up to speed on quickly.
“There’s a lot that I don’t know,” she admitted. “My biggest hurdle is the normal things that a mid council leader will do, so I’m learning a lot as I get started. It’s a significant shift of my being. Being a pastor, there’s a natural rhythm and routine of life. This is a completely different context and a different kind of call. It’s learning to take on a new role. You’re changing clothes in some ways. It’s a new pair of shoes.”
There will certainly be a learning curve for Jessica, but she’s looking forward to the challenges and opportunities that will be coming her way in her new role as the general minister in Pittsburgh Presbytery.
“I have really just trusted the Lord in all of this,” Jessica said. “It really wasn’t something I was looking for. I felt God’s spirit move through and in me and in the work of the search committee. They were so lovely in such a way that inspired me to continue on in the process of what God might do. I’m really excited. I’m just getting my feet wet and dipping my toes in, but there is a lot of love and support from the presbytery, which gets me so very excited about having their support to move forward.”